1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of computing system data backup and, more particularly, to access and restoration of previously backed up data.
2. Description of the Related Art
As computer memory storage and data bandwidth increase, so does the amount and complexity of data that business and individuals must manage. A large portion of the data may involve content managed for a company or home workgroup by a dedicated server. This dedicated server may include or be coupled to a data storage subsystem comprising hard disks or other storage devices for the storage of a large amount of information. This dedicated server and storage subsystem may provide users the ability to search and access information, including electronic documents, photographic or other still images, video streams, audio files, volume image backup files, etc.
Because the various examples of stored data may frequently contain crucial information, the contents of information servers may be archived or backed up to an archival or a backup storage to prevent loss of data. In such a case, the dedicated server and storage subsystem may include a backup system. For example, a back-end database provided within the server and storage subsystem is often backed up as a single, monolithic database file. This database file contains all the tables, records, and indexing information for the database.
For many of the uses of the image backup file, a customer may desire to view and/or retrieve information stored within the image backup file. Many common file formats exist that allow an easy, compatible transfer of data between a backup system and a customer's software applications. An image backup file that utilizes a common file format may be supported by a variety of applications provided by a variety of vendors. Some examples of common disk image file formats include virtual hard disk (VHD), V2i, and virtual machine disk (VMDK).
However, in some cases, a backup system may create and store an image backup file in a proprietary file format that is particular to the backup system or is otherwise not widely supported. For example, a backup system may utilize single-instance storage (SIS) in order to reduce data storage requirements. However, the format utilized by the SIS system may not be supported by other vendor's applications. Other proprietary formats may be used as well. Consequently, customers may have backup images created according to a format that is not supported by other applications that the customer uses.
In view of the above, methods and mechanisms for enabling applications to utilize data backed up in a format foreign to the application are desired.